North vs. Brooks

Upon reading Brooks article, I found that he and North often align in their ideas of the ideal writing center. Both minds focus on the benefit of the student rather than the paper, and cast grades to the curb. To these men grammar, punctuation, and word phrasing of any kind is not only a waste of both peer's time and energy, but can be detrimental to the learning experience and the improvement of the client as a writer and an editor to their own papers. Both of these men also have very specific ideas about how a writing center should be set up (ie. both peers sitting on the same side of a larger table or desk). They focus on which environment is best for stimulating the writer, and reiterate constantly that there must be a focus on sharing the role of authority between both the student and the tutor.

To both North and Brooks the student who comes for tutoring is like an infant learning to walk, struggling to achieve what seems to be an impossible task. Once the infant has fallen a few times, they frantically struggle to reach some one to help, or something to hold them up. In this situation this object which holds them up and provides support is their peer tutor. As a tutor this infant's success is in your hands, focus and criticism on placement of feet, or simple grammatical errors, will only discourage the young student and frusterate them until they are swayed to give up. However, if the teacher focuses on the basic stance of the infant, structure and ideas of the paper, with an encouraging and collaborative attitude, the infant, or student, will thrive in this encouraging atmosphere and gain confidence in themself and their ability to overcome hardships in the future. This example shows that a peer tutor needs to focus on encouragement and positive improvements in a collaborative environment rather than criticize their peer on simple grammatical errors and focus on the bad aspects of a paper. A student will thrive in a positive and collaborative environment.